Touch based interfaces are becoming extremely commonplace in today's handheld devices. It is envisioned that such touch-based interfaces will enter into the home appliance and furniture market, in the form of intelligent furniture and appliances. As touch based interfaces become more powerful, a greater amount of user input will be supported. Accordingly, the physical amount of space on a touch screen is a limiting factor into the amount of input the touch interface can receive from a user.
In the case of a handheld device, the back surface of the device is commonly left unused, and as such may be an important and unexploited area of interaction. In the case of furniture such as a tabletop, the table top provides a large surface that remains unexploited. In either case, these unexploited surfaces will draw up new challenges to developers because a touch interface needs to be resilient to user intentions, that is—the interface must be able to distinguish between voluntary user input and inadvertent or passive interactions with the touch interface. In the case of a handheld device, a user's palm will frequently be touching the back of the device, while on a table top, it is often more comfortable for a user to rest the entire hand on a tabletop, rather than just the user's fingers.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.